Born and raised in Colorado Springs, Western muralist, painter, illustrator, and color consultant Allen True attended the University of Denver for two years, then moved on to the Corcoran Art School in Washington, D.C. In 1902, True became the pupil of Howard Pyle, continuing to work with the painter-illustrator until 1908. During the same period, True began his own professional career when his illustrations of Western life were reproduced in Outing magazine. All were Colorado scenes, such as “Breaking the Trail” and “Homesteader in the Quicksands.”

True’s depictions of the West found a wider audience in the following years as his illustrations were used in various national magazines including Harper’s, Collier’s, and The Saturday Evening Post. In 1911 he illustrated a book on Colorado. Among the works included were pieces entitled “Pioneers and Conestoga Wagon,” “Indians Watching Fremont’s Force,” and “Pike Leaving Two Comrades with Frozen Feet near Canon City.”

Perhaps it was this work that afforded True’s travel-fare to England. He was in London during the 1910s, first as the pupil of the great English muralist Frank Brangwyn, later as Brangwyn’s assistant, a position that lasted for two years, during which True helped the artist with decorations for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Illustration work continued, with True working on the book Song of the Indian Wars. He was also the subject of a traveling one-person exhibition that circulated to 29 cities. True had returned to Denver in 1917 to paint the eight murals in the Colorado State Capitol telling Western history in terms of dependence on water, a theme that still compels our interest. He continued to work in England as well as in the Western United States; during 1924 he studied in France.

Despite the Depression, America was starting to think big, and the scale of True’s projects was as diverse as imaginable. In 1935 he was selected to act as government consultant in decoration and color scheme for the Boulder Dam power plant project. Following the Boulder Dam came the Grand Coulee and Shasta Dam power plants in 1946, with True designing the decorative color schemes for these projects. At the time of their construction, these power plant and dam projects were described in grandeur, scope, power and cultural importance as equal to the Pyramids or the Great Wall of China. Ironically, a far smaller design by True is probably his most famous work and certainly the most widely reproduced: His bucking horse with rider still decorate Wyoming’s license plates.

MEMBERSHIPS:
Royal Society of Artists (England)
Denver Art Association (which eventually became the Denver Art Museum)
National Society of Mural Painters
Architectural League of New York

PARTIAL LIST OF PUBLIC WORKS:
Murals in Colorado and Wyoming State Capitols
Dome decorations within the Missouri State Capitol
Denver Public Library
Brown Palace Hotel, Denver
Greek Theatre, Denver
Civic Center, Denver
Voorhees Memorial Arch, Denver
Colorado National Bank, Denver
Mountain States Telephone Building, Denver
US National Bank Building, Denver, Indian pottery design in barrel vault ceiling
Taylor Day Nursery, Colorado Springs
Montana National Bank, Billings MT